Miami Zine Fair celebrates the art of indie publishing
Philip Lique, an artist and designer based in South Florida, remembers the first time he attended the Miami Zine Fair. Originally from Connecticut, he says the independent publishing convention was 'the first real community event that I got involved in' when he moved to Florida about a decade ago.
'Everyone is there really for the same reason, and it's because they like making zines, and they like alternative publications and alternative publishing and independent publishing and things of that nature,' he says. Lique has volunteered at previous editions of the fair, but at this year's edition on Saturday, April 19, he'll offer zines that include creative deconstructions of Marvel comics and graphic design. The ability to share his artistic expression and learn from others is what draws him back each time.
Zines – the term is derived from magazine and refers to independently or self-published print works – have always held importance for alternative and subcultural movements. Black artists self-published 'little magazines' during the Harlem Renaissance, and many other communities and political groups have used the form to share information, from science fiction fans to feminists, punks, and feminist punks.
'Just by being around and observing what other people are doing, you're learning about either the craft of making these books, or these magazines or zines, or whatever you want to classify them as,' says Lique 'I feel like I'm learning about what the temperature of culture is, among young people and among others, in a space where I'm learning it firsthand. I'm not observing it via social media. It's not being sold to me via an advertisement.'
The Miami Zine Fair is a platform for this unique type of media, where dozens of zine makers – artists and designers, nonprofits and other organizations – can bring their creative work to the public.
'The great thing about zines is it's totally open access. Anyone can make a zine,' says Amanda Keeley, founder of Exile Projects and the Miami Zine Fair. 'A lot of zines are kind of DIY, but then you also see zines that are absolutely gorgeously designed, and so it's like the full gamut.'
The fair started as an outgrowth of Exile Books, now Exile Projects, a pop-up artist bookstore Keeley started in 2014 that evolved into a publishing house in Little Haiti. 'It was called Exile because we constantly moved. We had no home, and then we would keep shifting locations.' They started the fair while in residence at the YoungArts Foundation in Edgewater in 2015, holding the event outdoors with around 60 vendors in 98-degree heat.
'We had lots of zine workshops happening in the gallery, and it was cool there. So everyone wanted to be in the workshops,' recalls Keeley.
Despite the heat, the event was successful, setting the groundwork for future fairs. The last edition in 2019 at the Little Haiti Cultural Center attracted 120 exhibitors and over 4,000 visitors, an expansion that felt slightly too rapid for Keeley. After taking a break due to the pandemic, Exile held a few smaller events, such as a 2022 fair focused on food and wellness at the Underline in Brickell.
But people kept asking when the main event would return, says Keeley, and so 2025's edition, which celebrates Exile's 10th anniversary, is the zine fair's big comeback.
Nearly 100 vendors will take over the Paradise Plaza Event Space in the Design District. Additionally, quite a few local organizations have been brought on to assist with organizing and staging events, including Sweat Records, the Miami Paper and Printing Museum, and Radiator Comics. Dale Zine, which hosts several smaller zine fairs every year, will host the afterparty.
The O, Miami Poetry Festival, which runs through April and has been collaborating with the Zine Fair since its foundation, is one of the more prominent partners. They will table at the fair and stage two special projects, a photobook workshop and a 'poetic domino game activation' in which the dominos use words and phrases instead of numbers.
One debut program comes from the group Black Miami-Dade, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of Miami's Black history. Founded by journalist Nadege Green, its zines dive into Miami's Black cultural heritage, and their table will feature a vinyl storytelling experience exploring musicians such as Cab Calloway and Josephine Baker. Keeley was already a fan of the project and reached out to invite them to show their work, only to find that they had already applied.
'They're making these really beautiful zines that document and archive Black history within Miami,' Keeley says. 'I'm really excited to check (them) out.'
Keeley hopes the fair will serve as a means for people to connect with each other and learn more about the culture of independent publishing.
'A really cool thing that's a tradition in the zine fair, is a lot of times they trade (their zines). So it's not just buying a zine, it's also trading, and it's connecting.'
If you go:
WHAT: Miami Zine Fair
WHERE: Paradise Plaza event space, Miami Design District, 151 NE 41st St., Miami
WHEN: Noon to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 19
COST: Free, but RSVP requested.
INFORMATION: miamizinefair.com
ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don't miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.
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